High school hoops are heating up and my extended gig at the paper sends me to a million gyms between now and the middle of March. I like basketball but then everybody has a limit. I haven’t reached mine but have been close in the past. (Some knuckleheads behind me in the stands after 25 hours of games in two days.)
A couple observations as we head into crunch time, to crunch a hackneyed phrase:
A point of emphasis of officials in high school and college basketball has been carrying the rock, what we use to call palming. Crossover dribbles have become almost impossible to defend because the offense player simply stops, holds on to the ball, then crosses over.
Good idea if you can get away with it. But it hardly makes you a better player.
For the most part I have seen the palm being called, but where they ought to really look at it is in the middle schools and lower high school ranks, so kids can learn good habits. It is also a matter of coaching. If players are blowing the doors off of practice with a great dribble drive, but they are carrying it, time to drag out the fundamentals.
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I wrote last year about officiating in general, speaking with veteran stripes Joe Wells and Tim Higgins. If it’s March, everybody seems to have an opinion on what happens 20, 60, or even 100 feet away, an opinion based on the logic that the guy three feet from the action missed it. They can, sure, but do the math.
I guess like most fans I know an occasional missed call can be part of the game. What annoys the hell out of me is gas bag sitting directly behind me questioning every call, every no call, and the shoe selection of the opponent’s coach. People like that see a conspiracy inside every gym bag.
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Final thought: Dennis Johnson. I hope that young ballers don’t miss the importance of what Larry Bird has said about Johnson, who died Thursday at the age of 52. Bird, one of basketball’s five greatest, said Johnson was the best teammate he ever had. That means he came to work every night, he defended, he did what was necessary for his team to win, and cared little about who stood in front of the cameras at the end of the game.
At a time when seventh graders are being recruited, talking about team may seem a quaint notion, but I’ll still take five playing as one rather than one playing as five. Johnson played like that. Bird benefited from and appreciated it. Rest in peace, DJ.